The canna starch had settled to the bottom. After carefully decanting the yellowish-brown water on top, the pristine white starch layer was immediately revealed.
If they had more time, they could filter it and let it settle again; the finished vermicelli would be clearer and chewier. But time was extremely tight, so they could only filter it once. The vermicelli-making tasks had to be completed before winter, because when winter arrived, drying the vermicelli would be very difficult.
The canna starch was scraped from the bottom of the basin and placed onto a wooden tray. Next, they crumbled the lumps of starch, then poured in boiling water and stirred it evenly, creating a thick paste layer (half-raw, half-cooked starch). The characteristic of canna starch at this point was that when stationary, its surface was quite hard, but when scooped up by hand, the starch immediately liquefied and flowed like a stream. This was exactly the effect Kaelen wanted.
